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The Western Cape and Upper Austria have joined forces to boost agricultural skills in the two regions.

Set to start in 2018, an agricultural student exchange will see young people from the Western Cape attending HLFS St.Florian and HLFS Elmberg, leading agriculture schools in Upper Austria.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was yesterday (8 November 2016) signed by Alan Winde, Minister of Economic Opportunities and Max Hiegelsberger, State Agricultural Commissioner, representing the State of Upper Austria.

Western Cape Finance Minister Ivan Meyer, Joyene Isaacs, the Head of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture and Hubert Huber, the Head of Agriculture for the State of Upper Austria, witnessed the signing of the MoU.

Key points in the MoU include:

· Youth exchange programmes

· Exchange of best practices and knowledge transfer in primary and processing agriculture

Minister Winde said: “Western Cape students are set to travel to Upper Austria in 2018, and students from Upper Austria will visit our province the following year. Students from the province will receive theory and practical training in areas including food technology and production management.

“We have selected skills as an economic enabler, because we need to ensure that young people are able to take advantage of opportunities in our economy.

“This partnership with Upper Austrian is also aligned to our Project Khulisa growth strategy, which is seeking to add up to 100 000 jobs to the agri-processing sector. Through our talks with the Upper Austria delegation, we also discussed other areas of collaboration, such as increasing our wine exports to the region and partnerships in agri-tourism.”

Front, from left: Max Hiegelsberger, State Agricultural Commissioner, Alan Winde, Minister of Economic Opportunities.
Back, from left: Hubert Huber, the Head of Agriculture for the State of Upper Austria, Ivan Meyer, Minister of Finance, Joyene Isaacs, Head of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture

For media queries, kindly contact:

Bronwynne Jooste
Spokesperson: Alan Winde, Minister of Economic Opportunities
Responsible for Tourism, Economic Development and Agriculture
Western Cape Government